Changes and improvements to production infrastructure can significantly reduce raw materials used, and related costs of storage, as well as boost manufacturing efficiency.

According to McKinsey reports, companies should prioritise activities that offer the greatest potential benefit. Additionally, producers can save resources by reducing the amount of material or energy (electricity and heat) they use in production by mapping energy consumption at every production step. Manufacturers should also prioritise waste recovery, which can enable them to secure access to materials through activities such as recycling and reuse. Manufacturers that make components or final products can also optimise product design in order to use materials more efficiently.

Barriers to embarking on production line improvements include lack of awareness or the perception that operations are already efficient. New thinking is needed, beyond business-as-usual, to develop the ideal or optimal case. Changes in management approach and organisational culture may be needed to introduce the full 360-degree thinking that is conducive to improving resource efficiency. Lean manufacturing, which applies material-and-information-flow analysis techniques (McKinsey), supports this. 

Another possibility for improving resource efficiency is value recovery through reusing materials, waste-to-energy conversion, and component recovery. Environmental profit and loss statements (EP&L, McKinsey) can also be used to place a monetary value on environmental impact.